Students attending independent colleges will receive larger State Need Grants, nonresident students remain eligible for State Work Study positions, and colleges will have some welcome added flexibility in management of their endowments thanks to legislation enacted during the just-completed legislative session.
Need Grant. The new biennial budget increases funding for financial aid by about $52 million dollars. Independent Colleges of Washington successfully turned back a proposal to freeze the State Need Grant for students attending private colleges. Instead, the base grant for students at member institutions will be the same as that received by students attending public research universities. The Higher Education Coordinating Board will make the official calculations, but it’s likely to be in the neighborhood of $6,800 next year, an increase of about $600 for students at independent colleges.
Your efforts were a big help in this favorable budget outcome. If you haven’t already, please make one last visit to ICW’s Legislative Action Center and click on the alert to thank legislators for treating students at independent colleges fairly.
Work Study. ICW also turned back an effort to make nonresident students ineligible for the State Work Study program. Students from other states have been eligible for the program since it began in the mid-’70s, modeled after the federal program. Offering work study positions can help colleges attract and keep great students from other states, and will help ensure strong programs at colleges that bring in significant numbers of students from elsewhere. A measure tweaking work study provisions, SSB 5044, has already been signed by the governor. It limits work study expenditures for nonresidents to 15 percent of the total appropriated — about the proportion they receive now.
UPMIFA. The legislature gave final approval to the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (SHB 1119) on the last weekend of the session. The measure will give institutions some added flexibility in the management of their endowments. Amendments made to the bill during the final week of the session give institutions the option of adopting the new rules this year or next, whichever their boards decide is best. The measure is on the governor’s desk, and she has until mid-May to take action.
You may be reading that a special session of the legislature is likely, as several key pieces of legislation were still pending when the clock struck midnight Sunday and the regular session adjourned. Most notable among these is a bill regarding levy equalization for public school districts. If there is a special session, neither budget matters nor higher education policy are likely to be on the agenda. Our work is probably finished for this year.
